The triumphant team returned, pockets laden with orc treasure, back to town. Once tallied up there wasn’t that much gold in the orcs’ chest after all, but it was our first actual loot and we treasured it.
“I can use the mana in those crystals to power my forge instead of using my own, or to supplement mine if I don’t have enough,” Byron had explained. Not knowing any other use for them, we gladly gave him all the crystals we got from the orc battle. I’d wondered if I could do the same with Synthesize, and made a mental note to try it next time.
The gang was disappointed to see only coins spill from the chest. Coins are nice, but everyone was hoping for magic items or something more exciting. The only thing that had lit up with a Status when I evaluated the orc camp was the leader’s bone necklace. No surprise, it had been glowing when the Leader had been alive.
Alpha’s Necklace Whitened bones and yellowed teeth from various species adorn this otherwise simple leather thong, taken from around the neck of the leader of the orc expedition camped outside the elves’ wall of thorns. Powers: The Power Of The Alpha - Once triggered, the wearer’s strength gradually increases; Duration - 2 minutes; Cooldown - 5 minutes
Everyone liked the idea of being stronger, but not at the cost of having to wear the thing; everyone except Wayne, that is. Wayne said he thought he looked cool and scary with it, and it fit with the Baron Samedi look he was considering adopting, so everyone was happy.
We now found ourselves approaching the town square with only a couple of hours left before the end of the quest.
“I hate to be a Debbie Downer,” Jane said, “but aren’t we still one Player behind on your quest, Daniel? For someone who’s supposed to be some kind of gamer whiz, you suck at this. You’d better get your act together or you’re gonna fail your quest and we’ll all be screwed.” She’d taken to walking around with Squishy on her shoulder, where it jiggled happily.
As annoying as Jane was, she wasn’t entirely wrong: we didn’t have much time to find the last team member. Lacking a better plan, we found a place with a good amount of foot traffic and stood there while I evaluated everyone I could see, searching for that elusive Player with a combination of great powers, skills, and affinity who wasn’t already on another team to complete ours.
After a while, a low growl rumbled beside me.
“I might be hungry again,” Sigrid said, gripping her belly. We’d had a big lunch at the edge of the forest, so it came as a shock.
“Ya think?” Jane said.
“I have a high metabolism,” Sigrid said.
“Go grab some food,” I said. “We don’t all have to do this, you know.”
“You sure?”
“Of course,” I said. “I bet by the time you get back we’ll have already found our last teammate.”
Sigrid’s tummy growled again.
“Come on, I’ll go with you,” said Andy. He grabbed her hand and started pulling her towards a bakery across the street.
“Noooo,” complained Sigrid. “No carbs!”
I watched them argue playfully as he dragged her to the shop. She struggled to change direction toward a nearby food cart, but Andy won in the end and they disappeared into the bakery.
Then I found her. The perfect teammate.
Chika Hachiman
Affinity:
Death - Novice
Gifts:
Strong Like Bull - Super strength
Powers:
Boing Boing - Competent: Incredible leaping ability
I Vant To Zuck Your Life - Novice: Transfer health from target to Player; Range: Touch; Affinity with Death required
Skills:
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Acrobatics - Competent
Jiu Jitsu - Competent
Taunting - Competent
Four out of five abilities leveled up to Competent already, and all of them good. She’s been busy.
She was at the food cart Sigrid had tried to reach, a tiny, waiflike Japanese girl in her mid-teens with straight black hair past her shoulders and a trail of piercings up the side of one ear. She’d been a maestro at collectible card games at the convention. We decided that we should approach her as a smaller, less intimidating group, so Jane and I went over to her alone. Besides, I had promised Jane the day before I’d take her to try the war pig skewer at this particular food cart.
Jane gripped my arm as we approached. “It smells so good,” she said. We stepped up beside the girl in front of the cart. She was craning her neck and shifting back and forth, peering around as though searching for something.
“I know you,” said Crazy Sadie without even looking up. She was busy slathering a thick reddish sauce onto a pair of skewers smoldering over her cart’s glowing coals. “How’s that ring working out for ya?”
I glanced down at my finger. Will she be mad that I’d turned her ring into a Void Key? I shifted my other hand over to cover it discreetly. Crazy Sadie’s one functional eye shifted to my hands briefly, then it tracked up to my face. Her mouth crinkled into a tiny smile.
“Can we have nine?” I said.
She nodded approvingly and started plunging a gnarled hand into the tub hanging off the side of the cart, pulling out chunks of marinated meat and sliding them onto fresh skewers with practiced efficiency, then laying the skewers on the grill in a tidy row. All the while she regaled us with a story about how her grandson swore he saw an elf in the city, but how he must be fibbing again because nobody’s seen any pointy ears inside the wall for years.
“We asked for nine skewers,” Jane said when Sadie was done laying them out.
“Aye.”
“There’s only eight. You need to put one more on.”
Sadie fixed her cloudy eye on Jane, who returned the look. After a moment, Sadie nodded and plunged her hand into the tub again, preparing one more skewer.
That was too easy. I’d never seen Sadie acquiesce so quickly.
It had been a while since I’d used All Shall Be Revealed on Jane, and I had a theory I wanted to explore.
Mary Jane Anders
Affinity:
Air - Competent
Darkness - Novice
Death - Novice
Fire - Competent
Earth - Novice
Ice - Novice
Life - Novice
Light - Novice
Nature - Novice
Shadow - Novice
Void - Novice
Gifts:
Let’s Dance - Incredible agility
Master Of None - Player can develop Prime Affinity with all elements; Restriction: cannot evolve mastery in any Affinity, Power, or Skill beyond Expert level
Powers:
Captivating Presence - Adept: Affect the moods of others
Glow Worm - Competent: Emit light
Gone the Next - Competent: Teleport short distances
Skills:
Affinity Control - Competent
Dance - Novice
Gymnastics - Novice
Music - Competent
Sword - Competent
Of all her abilities, that’s the one that’s at Adept already? Just as I thought.
“Jane,” I said. “Just how often do you captivate people with your presence?”
She gave me a look of excessive sweetness and innocence, a sure sign of guilt. “Hmmmm? Whatever do you mean?”
“Thought so.”
Crazy Sadie took the two skewers she’d been cooking before off the grill. “One silver.”
The girl, Chika, dug into a pocket and pulled out a gold coin. “All I’ve got is this.”
Sadie cast her a dubious eye.
I know where this is going.
“Let me pay for those,” I said.
Now it was Chika casting a dubious look my way.
“Don’t worry,” said Jane. “He’s harmless. Actually...” and she went on to start a conversation. It was flabbergasting how easily she could do that.
The girl remained wary, but her trepidation was no match for Jane’s unquenchable charisma and in short order we had found our last team member, although Chika had seemed distracted the whole time, always looking around.
“We’re going to the pub on Dagger Street with the big dragon on the sign out front to wait for the quest period to end,” said Jane.
“Yeah,” said Chika. “So about the team...” She continued looking around like a parent trying to keep an eye on a constantly wandering child, only there were no children around, nor anyone else for that matter.
“You can meet them all at the pub.”
“Yeah but is there...” She kept looking, as though searching for someone. “Where is he?”
“Lose someone?” asked Jane.
“Yeah. I mean no. I mean...where’d he go this time?”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” Chika said. “Sure.” She took a few quick steps to peer behind the food cart. Crazy Sadie cleared her throat, then jerked her head toward an alley behind the cart.
“Well you seem busy,” Jane said, “so we’ll see you at the pub, right?”
“Yeah,” Chika said, “sure,” and she ducked into the shadows of the alley where Sadie had indicated, laden with her dripping skewers.
We watched her go.
“Are we sure about her?” asked Jane.